Formula One news
Six out of seven for Button
07 June 2009 / Results / PhotosJenson Button has equalled the record of winning six of an F1 season's first seven races with victory in the Turkish Grand Prix. The Red Bull pairing of Mark Webber and pole man Sebastian Vettel finished alongside Button on the podium as Rubens Barrichello suffered from the Brawn team's first retirement.
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| The field filters through Turn 1 cleanly for the first time in five races at Istanbul Park |
Button continued his near-perfect run of form in 2009 by clinching victory at Istanbul Park from second on the grid; it had looked to be a tough afternoon for Englishman Jenson, although pole man Sebastian Vettel's 3-stop strategy did not play into the German's hands and resulted with the second podium spot being taken by his Australian team-mate, which was a career-best equalled for Webber. Temperatures of 28°C (82°F) were on offer for the crowd as, for the first time in Turkey, the field completed the first two corners cleanly.
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| Gearbox problems for Barrichello forced risks, which caused incidents |
Rubens Barrichello has a disastrous afternoon in the second Brawn car, all after qualifying slower than team-mate Button whilst on a lighter fuel load on Saturday. The Brazilian suffered a sluggish start which saw him drop to thirteenth position by the end of the first lap. On his slice back through the field, Rubens came together with the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen to bring an end to a spirited battle as the Brawn-Mercedes spun at Turn 9. Only a handful of laps later, tagging the Force India of Adrian Sutil resulted with an unscheduled pit-stop for front wing repairs, with Barrichello's afternoon ending in the garage with clutch and gearbox problems on Lap 46.
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| Massa's three-year Turkish winning streak has ended |
Giancarlo Fisichella was the first retirement of the day, though, as the Force India driver pulled into his pit box having completed just five laps. The McLaren team suffered from its large lack of downforce to wind up in 13th and 14th places for World Champion Lewis Hamilton - who entertained everybody during a fantastic dice with Nelson Piquet's Renault - and Finnish team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
Felipe Massa's 3-year run of winning reuslts in Istanbul came to an end on Sunday afternoon, although the Brazilian arguably out-performed his car to come home sixth and claim three points. Robert Kubica scored his first points of the season for BMW, with the team's new double-diffuser clearly making a step forward in seventh place.
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| A fired-up Jarno Trulli was delighted with fourth place for Toyota |
After their awful weekend in Monte-Carlo, Toyota returned to the points with both cars as Timo Glock completed the top eight and Jarno Trulli, with the demise of Barrichello, scoring a surprise five points for fourth place. For many, Nico Rosberg will be driver of the day as the German comfortably finished ahead of Massa to score a top five result for Williams and add to his points tally by four, despite being overhauled by Trulli during their last pit stops.
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| Seven races and six wins for Jenson Button |
Missing out on points were former Champions Räikkönen and Alonso by completing the top ten in what was a processional second half to the Grand Prix, as Sébastien Buemi drove a hard-fought race to finish an impressive 15th on a self-confessed difficult weekend.
At the front, Button found himself under severe pressure from Vettel for several laps during the race - with both cars on Hard compound tyres - although the latter failed to take the lead and slotted into third place behind Webber after his third and final pit-stop. Button's sixth win from seven races not only equals Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher's record but increases the lead of the Brawn driver atop the standings to 26 points heading into his home Grand Prix in a fortnight, with second to fourth places now separated by just 7.5 points.
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